


Experimental Cheese

by omphale23



Category: Twitch City
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-14
Updated: 2010-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omphale23/pseuds/omphale23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was unnerving, how quickly Hope was turning into her mother. Or, and this was a scary thought, Nathan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experimental Cheese

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slidellra (sli)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sli/gifts).



> [](http://spuffyduds.livejournal.com/profile)[**spuffyduds**](http://spuffyduds.livejournal.com/) gave me the prompt of pop-tarts, and the result is unbeta'ed and short, featuring Hope's insecurities and Newbie's wrists.

Hope had never thought of herself as being terribly girly. She didn't dress right, and her hair was…experimental…but she had to admit that living with Curtis made her wonder. She was suddenly finding herself thinking really girly things, like _why can't he put the toilet seat down_, or _what is that horrible smell_, or _when was the last time we vacuumed the floor in here_. It was unnerving, how quickly Hope was turning into her mother. Or, and this was a scary thought, Nathan. Complete with job wheel, if it meant that she could stop putting on her shoes to walk into the bathroom in the mornings.

But then, was it really _girly_ to want to be able to open the fridge without being attacked by a rampant slime mold? Or was that more of a _human_ aspiration, and Curtis was the unreasonable one? She thought it was maybe okay, wanting to be able to sit on the couch without wondering what the crunching noise was, but there wasn't any way to bring it up in conversation and make sure.

Either way, she was at a bit of a loss when Newbie mentioned that they all get together and hang out, because calling the stuff in their kitchen food (a box of Frooty-O's, six cans of catfood, a packet of pop-tarts, and some green stuff that might have been spinach. Or maybe applesauce) was stretching a point. Hope checked the cupboards again, but other than a partial tin of black stuff in the back behind the stereo remote, nothing appeared. And she hadn't gotten paid yet, and Curtis was…Curtis. So whatever Newbie had in mind, he was going to be disappointed. Unless he thought courting food poisoning was a fun way to spend an evening.

She did have a box of tea. Some of that expensive stuff, with the separate leaves and a little thing with the chain. It was Nathan's, but he wasn't going to need it anytime soon.

Was tea girly? If she could manage to make a cup of tea, would that outweigh the fact that her mother had never taught Hope to use an iron or how to make a doily?

What if she had no idea what to do with the metal bits? And could you make it in a pan, or did there have to be one of those teakettles, one with a whistle on top?

Some people liked milk in their tea. Or sugar. The milk was more of an experimental cheese right now, and the only sugar she could find was in the form of pixie sticks. And there were supposed to be cookies or something to eat, and the thought of pop-tarts at four in the afternoon was sort of vaguely horrifying.

Plus she hadn't seen the toaster in weeks.

When Newbie showed up, carrying a paper sack full of thai food and a box of wine, Hope was standing in the middle of the kitchen. There were tea leaves scattered on the floor around her and what she suspected was a weepy, frustrated look on her face.

She felt like such a _girl_, and the only thing that made it okay was the puzzled way Newbie looked around, as if he'd meant to offer dinner but somehow _Planet of the Apes_ had started and he forgot that part so now the whole mess was his fault. He actually started to apologize, set the bag on a counter and crouched to sweep the leaves into a pile.

Hope could see the edge of his hips when he bent like that, his spine framed by pants and a thin t-shirt. He had nice wrists, which Hope had never considered to be important before.

And it was all on the verge of turning into melodrama, with the shaky-lipped heroine being rescued by a knight in shining, um, doc martens, when they looked at each other and Hope started laughing. Pretty soon Newbie had tipped his head to the side and was giving her that slightly-confused grin, and just as she was starting to explain (she had gotten as far as, "I'm no good at being a girl, not really") Curtis wandered in, muttered about laundry commercials being the work of the devil, and everything was back to normal.

Including eating out of the cartons, because Hope hadn't the faintest idea what they'd done with the plates.


End file.
